First 100 days: Hawkeye state of mind

According to the AP, "President Barack Obama travels to Iowa today with Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. The president and the former Iowa governor will visit a former Maytag plant that now houses a manufacturing facility that produces towers for wind energy production."

The Des Moines Register adds, "Heather Zichal, a top aide on Obama's energy team, said the president would urge Congress to pass a bill that commits $15 billion annually for 10 years to the renewable-energy industry. 'Go back to this plant in 10 years and, once we get this comprehensive energy and climate legislation through, they will see a dramatic rise in the number of employees,' said Zichal, deputy assistant to the president in the Office of Energy and Climate Change Policy. 'We're not suggesting we would completely fill this hole, but we're making dramatic improvements and steps in the Obama administration to get there.'"

"The money that Obama is seeking in energy legislation would provide longer-term support for clean-energy jobs than the $500 million contained in the federal economic stimulus package, White House officials said."

Another nugget in the story: "The Des Moines Register's most recent Iowa Poll, taken three weeks ago, showed 64 percent of Iowans approved of the job the new president was doing, down from 68 percent in January."

As reporters try to assess Obama's first 100 days, Norm Ornstein reminds us to not forget the next 100. "A presidency is four or eight years, either a marathon or a triathlon. Measuring progress after the first 100 yards can be very misleading," he writes in Roll Call. He does, however, have some good questions to ask when assessing those first 100.

The AP checks in on Hillary Clinton's early tenure as Secretary of State: "When President Barack Obama chose Hillary Rodham Clinton to be his secretary of state, skeptics foresaw trouble: a clash of ego and ambition, a conflict of policy priorities between former campaign rivals. It hasn't worked out that way. He has taken the lead on foreign policy and she has dutifully followed. Rather than light her own torch, she has chosen to be a team player, deferring to Obama in public while keeping her advice strictly private. The cohesion suggests the two share a common view of how best to put foreign policy tools to work. Of course it's still early. The toughest choices -- and gravest crises -- in foreign affairs likely lie ahead."